Wine Trails of Paso Robles. The Project. And Beyond.

Feb 2, 2013

I got a random thought (always dangerous) which sort of grew into a life of its own when I realized that I couldn’t find an answer. I stumbled across a site that described one of Paso Robles‘ newest wine trails. And I asked myself, “Self, what is a wine trail, anyway?” Surprisingly, even though I googled it, I couldn’t find a definitive answer. However, I liked this definition that I got from the Wineries of Indiana website the best:

Wine trails are made up of several wineries, generally from one region, working together to offer customers the local wine experience. Customers can travel from winery to winery to learn about the various wines produced in the state.

For those traveling the trails, the participating wineries will offer suggestions for overnight accommodations and meals. Since the trails include visits to several wineries, everyone is encouraged to designate a driver and drink responsibly.

Of course, they are obviously talking about the wineries in Indiana (who knew), but I think that the definition fits for any wine trail in any locale.

Because of my planned vacation in Paso Robles this spring, I decided to take a look at the wine trails there. And found out that there are many, some with wineries overlapping into more than one. Unfortunately, not all of the wine trails are listed in one, easy-to-search place.

Until now.

Over the course of the next few postings, I will list all of the wine trails of Paso Robles that I can find. Time/energy allowing, I will also list the other wine trails of the SLO area – to include Templeton, Cambria, and Atascadero – and may expand to include the entire Central Coast.

Overly ambitious? Yeah, probably. But the way I look at it, if Indiana for crissakes can have an entire site talking about its wine trails and Paso Robles doesn’t, then something is awry in the world. I will do my best to rebalance it.

My little project will include the names and descriptions of the wine trails and links to any maps, websites, Youtube, and, of course, the wineries themselves. In my OCD way, I already have a spreadsheet going. Excel is my friend.

First up: The Union Road Wine Trail

Stay tuned…

The above photo is an unretouched pic I took a few years ago while driving up to Paso Robles. This was after a particularly rainy early spring and the flowers had gone nuts. Loved the beauty of it and happy to finally have a chance to post it here.